Washington's Special Brand of Incompetence Laid Bare

Deroy Murdock, in an article in NRO titled "Washington Deserves a Declaration of Incompetence," outlines a few current examples of everyday government expertise.

The Justice Department filled out the papers to Hong Kong requesting the extradition of America's most wanted man, Edward Snowden, with the wrong name; did not include his passport number; and waited for days to cancel his passport.

The Government Accountability Office reported in June that after three years, the key activities of ObamaCare health insurance exchanges, due to be in place October, are, on average, only about 15% complete.

In 2011, according to Murdock, the IRS mailed 23,994 tax refunds totaling $46,378,040.00 to "unauthorized aliens," all at the same address. Another 2,507 refunds worth $10,395,874.00 went to one address in Oxnard, California and 2,408 refund checks totaling $7,284,212.00 to an address in Raleigh, N.C.

That is enough incompetence to show the problem. Murdock filled two pages of examples.

There are 2,849,000 federal workers in 15 departments, 69 agencies, and 383 nonmilitary sub-agencies, according to the Washington Post. The Peter Principle states that everyone is promoted to the level of his incompetence, where he remains, making mistakes (in the case of civil service) until he retires. Dismissal is basically not an option with federal employees. Since the feds follow EEOC rules closely, affirmative action is mandatory, which by definition means that something other than competence is used to select personnel.

The government is metastasizing as Ivy League graduates devise increasingly intricate systems and goals to be carried out by indifferent students from Brackish Bay Sr. High. Hubris, the Peter Principle, and affirmative action ensure that incompetence is here to stay.

Deroy Murdock, in an article in NRO titled "Washington Deserves a Declaration of Incompetence," outlines a few current examples of everyday government expertise.

The Justice Department filled out the papers to Hong Kong requesting the extradition of America's most wanted man, Edward Snowden, with the wrong name; did not include his passport number; and waited for days to cancel his passport.

The Government Accountability Office reported in June that after three years, the key activities of ObamaCare health insurance exchanges, due to be in place October, are, on average, only about 15% complete.

In 2011, according to Murdock, the IRS mailed 23,994 tax refunds totaling $46,378,040.00 to "unauthorized aliens," all at the same address. Another 2,507 refunds worth $10,395,874.00 went to one address in Oxnard, California and 2,408 refund checks totaling $7,284,212.00 to an address in Raleigh, N.C.

That is enough incompetence to show the problem. Murdock filled two pages of examples.

There are 2,849,000 federal workers in 15 departments, 69 agencies, and 383 nonmilitary sub-agencies, according to the Washington Post. The Peter Principle states that everyone is promoted to the level of his incompetence, where he remains, making mistakes (in the case of civil service) until he retires. Dismissal is basically not an option with federal employees. Since the feds follow EEOC rules closely, affirmative action is mandatory, which by definition means that something other than competence is used to select personnel.

The government is metastasizing as Ivy League graduates devise increasingly intricate systems and goals to be carried out by indifferent students from Brackish Bay Sr. High. Hubris, the Peter Principle, and affirmative action ensure that incompetence is here to stay.